SONGS INSIDE THE BOX:
Cigar Box Guitar Documentary featuring Shane Speal
Add a stick and some strings to a wooden cigar box and you’ve got an inexpensive
musical instrument, a cigar box guitar. Each one is an original and some people say that each one has its
own songs inside. These unique guitars and the people who make music with them are the subject of
an upcoming documentary on Alabama Public Television.
“Songs Inside The Box” will
air Tuesday, April 14th at 8:00 p.m. on the statewide network. It will also be broadcast at 11:59 p.m.
on Tuesday, April 21nd. It was shot primarily at an Alabama event that brings together cigar box guitar
enthusiasts from across the eastern U.S.
The Cigar Box Guitar Extravaganza takes place each year
in Huntsville and is attended by some of the over 3,000 cigar box guitar builders and musicians who are connected through
an Internet forum started several years ago by Shane Speal of York, Pennsylvania. Speal is the self-proclaimed
“King of the Cigar Box Guitar” and he has united cigar box guitar hobbyists and professional musicians in a movement
he calls the cigar box guitar revolution.
The revolution is all about having fun building instruments
and playing music. Daniel Carter Beard, one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America, published instructions
for building a cigar box banjo in 1870. His programs were designed to help boys find their hidden inner
savage.
“When you pick up a cigar box guitar, it’s like putting on a mask for Halloween,”
says Huntsville blues guitarist Microwave Dave who appears in the documentary. “It gives you license
to do whatever you want because nobody knows what to expect.”
Cigar box instruments have
provided inexpensive entertainment since the 1800s and many professional musicians, including Jimi Hendrix, started their
careers with cigar box guitars. “Songs Inside The Box” includes performances by over a dozen
different musicians and information about how to build and play your own instrument.
“I’ve
had the opportunity to present this documentary at several film festivals,” said director Max Shores. “People
in the audience laugh at the characters on the screen initially but then they begin to identify with them. By
the end of the film a lot of people decide to build their own instrument and write their own songs,” he continued.
“It’s an amazingly powerful way to express yourself.”
